Poynter. » Verificationhttp://www.poynter.org
Create. Inform. Engage. | Journalism training, media news & how to'sTue, 03 Mar 2015 16:54:00 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.1Report: Online media are more a part of the problem of misinformation ‘than they are the solution’http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/318921/report-online-media-are-more-a-part-of-the-problem-of-misinformation-than-they-are-the-solution/
http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/318921/report-online-media-are-more-a-part-of-the-problem-of-misinformation-than-they-are-the-solution/#commentsTue, 10 Feb 2015 21:14:25 +0000http://www.poynter.org/?p=318921On Tuesday evening, Craig Silverman will present his report for the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School, where he is a fellow. In the more than 100-page paper entitled “Lies, Damn Lies and Viral Content,” Silverman examines the role online media plays in spreading rumors and hoaxes. In the report, Silverman, adjunct faculty for Poynter, writes:

Too often news organizations play a major role in propagating hoaxes, false claims, questionable rumors, and dubious viral content, thereby polluting the digital information stream. Indeed some so-called viral content doesn’t become truly viral until news websites choose to highlight it. In jumping on unverified information and publishing it alongside hedging language, such as “reportedly” or “claiming,” news organizations provide falsities significant exposure while also imbuing the content with credibility.

Read more]]>http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/318921/report-online-media-are-more-a-part-of-the-problem-of-misinformation-than-they-are-the-solution/feed/3Amnesty International launches video verification tool, websitehttp://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/257956/amnesty-international-launches-video-verification-tool-website/
http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/257956/amnesty-international-launches-video-verification-tool-website/#commentsTue, 08 Jul 2014 11:00:46 +0000http://www.poynter.org/?p=257956Amnesty International is in the verification game and that is good news for journalism.

When journalists monitor and search social networks, they’re looking to discover and verify newsworthy content. Amnesty utilizes the same networks and content — but their goal is to gather and substantiate evidence of human rights abuses.

“Verification and corroboration was always a key component of human rights research,” said Christoph Koettl, the emergency response manager in Amnesty USA’s Crisis Prevention and Response Unit. “We always had to carefully review and corroborate materials, no matter if it’s testimony, written documents or satellite imagery.”

Now they’re “confronted with a torrent of potential new evidence” thanks to social networks and cell phones. As with their counterparts in newsrooms, human rights workers and humanitarian organizations must develop and maintain skills to verify the mass of user-generated content. Read more

]]>http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/257956/amnesty-international-launches-video-verification-tool-website/feed/7Mobile trends to watch in second half of 2014; plus, a newsgathering guide to Tweetdeckhttp://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/257870/mobile-trends-to-watch-in-second-half-of-2014-plus-a-newsgathering-guide-to-tweetdeck/
http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/257870/mobile-trends-to-watch-in-second-half-of-2014-plus-a-newsgathering-guide-to-tweetdeck/#commentsMon, 07 Jul 2014 13:41:07 +0000http://www.poynter.org/?p=257870Here’s our roundup of the top digital and social media stories you should know about (and from Andrew Beaujon, 10 media stories to start your day, and from Kristen Hare, a world roundup):

— At Poynter, Adam Hochberg explores in depth Gannett’s three-year CMS overhaul to “replace the existing systems and serve every Gannett newsroom – from USA Today to KHOU-TV in Houston to the Fort Collins Coloradoan.”

— Frédéric Filloux runs down three mobile trends to watch for the rest of 2014, including questions about what news sites should do about the market of Android users — which is bigger than the iOS market but less lucrative.

— Joanna Geary, Twitter UK’s head of news, visited the Wall Street Journal in June to share tips on how to use Tweetdeck to gather news. Read more

]]>http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/257870/mobile-trends-to-watch-in-second-half-of-2014-plus-a-newsgathering-guide-to-tweetdeck/feed/0Don’t get hosed by fake hurricane photos this yearhttp://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/257766/dont-get-hosed-by-fake-hurricane-photos-this-year/
http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/257766/dont-get-hosed-by-fake-hurricane-photos-this-year/#commentsThu, 03 Jul 2014 20:47:53 +0000http://www.poynter.org/?p=257766As far as I can tell, these photos of lightning hitting New York Wednesday night are legit.

]]>http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/257766/dont-get-hosed-by-fake-hurricane-photos-this-year/feed/2New service will rate the authenticity of digital imageshttp://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/250577/new-service-will-test-whether-digital-images-have-been-manipulated/
http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/250577/new-service-will-test-whether-digital-images-have-been-manipulated/#commentsTue, 06 May 2014 04:01:41 +0000http://www.poynter.org/?p=250577By the time an image makes its way online, it could have been opened and processed in any number of applications, passed through various hands, and been remixed and manipulated.

Today a new image hosting service, Izitru, is launching to give people new ways to certify the authenticity of a digital image. It’s also a tool that journalists can use to help verify images.

The Izitru website and iOS app can “distinguish an original JPEG file captured with a digital camera from subsequent derivations of that file that may have been changed in some way,” according to the company.

It mixes forensic image analysis with elements of crowdsourcing and human oversight. Izitru also has an API that will enable other services to integrate its technology. Read more

]]>http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/250577/new-service-will-test-whether-digital-images-have-been-manipulated/feed/0Anthony De Rosa on verifying news: ‘I take in a lot and I put back out very little’http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/242910/anthony-de-rosa-on-verifying-news-i-take-in-a-lot-and-i-put-back-out-very-little/
http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/242910/anthony-de-rosa-on-verifying-news-i-take-in-a-lot-and-i-put-back-out-very-little/#commentsTue, 11 Mar 2014 13:27:49 +0000http://www.poynter.org/?p=242910If some information is already out there, do you need to say so?

This is a conundrum faced by many journalists, though not everyone sees it as a conundrum.

For example, if media in Vietnam report news about a missing flight that is the subject of reports all over the world, what do you do?

Tuoi Tre reports that Vietnamese Navy has confirmed that Malaysia Airlines #MH370 crashed into the sea 153 miles south of Phu Quoc island.

]]>http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/242910/anthony-de-rosa-on-verifying-news-i-take-in-a-lot-and-i-put-back-out-very-little/feed/0Announcing the release of the free Verification Handbookhttp://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/237329/announcing-the-release-of-the-free-verification-handbook/
http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/237329/announcing-the-release-of-the-free-verification-handbook/#commentsTue, 28 Jan 2014 17:59:22 +0000http://www.poynter.org/?p=237329A little over a year ago, I suggested to colleagues at Poynter that I write an e-book about verification.

It seemed to me an essential project, but also a reflection of the shift I’ve experienced in my focus for Regret the Error. When I first launched this blog as a standalone site in 2004, I was primarily finding and publishing corrections. Over time, I began to look at errors — their cause, prevalence and effect.

In the past three years, perhaps in part due to the spread of social media, smartphones and viral news, I’ve found myself more and more focused on verification.

With so much misinformation flowing fast and freely, and the ability for anyone to easily shoot, share and/or manipulate images and video, the skills of verification have never been more important. Read more

]]>http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/237329/announcing-the-release-of-the-free-verification-handbook/feed/1Video, verification, value: Why News Corp’s purchase of Storyful deserves your attentionhttp://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/234602/video-verification-value-why-news-corps-purchase-of-storyful-deserves-your-attention/
http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/234602/video-verification-value-why-news-corps-purchase-of-storyful-deserves-your-attention/#commentsMon, 23 Dec 2013 13:00:21 +0000http://www.poynter.org/?p=234602I first met Storyful CEO Mark Little at the 2011 ONA Conference in Boston. We headed off to find a quiet corner so I could hear more about what exactly a “social news agency” was.

“Three words: it’s discovery, it’s verification, it’s delivery,” Little told me. “I think that’s essentially the three component parts of the new form of social news.”

I was amazed they were basically running an outsourced verification service for other news outlets.

“I see the need,” I wrote. “The question is, can verification form the basis of a viable business?”

On Friday, the News Corp announced it paid $25 million to acquire Storyful. Question answered.
Storyful’s exit is about far more than the market validation of verification, though that is one clear takeaway. Read more

]]>http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/234602/video-verification-value-why-news-corps-purchase-of-storyful-deserves-your-attention/feed/0AP’s Navy Yard photos unrelated to shooting? D.C. man who says he was in them tells his storyhttp://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/223830/aps-navy-yard-photos-unrelated-to-shooting-d-c-man-who-says-he-was-in-them-tells-his-story/
http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/223830/aps-navy-yard-photos-unrelated-to-shooting-d-c-man-who-says-he-was-in-them-tells-his-story/#commentsTue, 17 Sep 2013 21:22:45 +0000http://www.poynter.org/?p=223830Eric Levenson raises many good questions about two pictures AP pulled from the wire Monday. They purported to show bystanders helping a victim of the Navy Yard shootings. The photographer, Don Andres, told MSNBC: “I don’t know if it’s related” to the violence.

Mandy Jenkins of Digital First Media tweeted her doubts: “Still pretty confused as to how a wounded man was dragged to CVS from the Navy Yard, it’s at least 3 blocks away.” Other questions remained, as well: Why was there no sign of blood? Would people have picked up and moved a gunshot victim to the ground on a concrete street corner?

James Birdsall may hold some answers. Birdsall is a structural engineer at the Parsons Corporation, a firm with an office at 100 M St. Read more

]]>http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/223830/aps-navy-yard-photos-unrelated-to-shooting-d-c-man-who-says-he-was-in-them-tells-his-story/feed/7New research suggests it’s possible to automatically identify fake images on Twitterhttp://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/217404/new-research-suggests-its-possible-to-automatically-identify-fake-images-on-twitter/
http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/217404/new-research-suggests-its-possible-to-automatically-identify-fake-images-on-twitter/#commentsFri, 05 Jul 2013 13:46:59 +0000http://www.poynter.org/?p=217404One of the most challenging aspects of social media is figuring out how to efficiently verify information and stop the spread of misinformation during breaking news situations.

Hurricane Sandy gave rise to a variety of efforts to try and identify and debunk fake images that were circulating on social media. News outlets like The Atlantic, BuzzFeed and the blog “Is Twitter Wrong?” all attempted to verify images in as close to real-time as possible, and spread word about the fakes.

But what if we could automate that process during crisis situations like Sandy?

A recent paper presented by researchers from the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, IBM Research Labs and the University of Maryland found that it was possible to identify tweets containing fake Sandy images with up to 97 percent accuracy.